The season is in full swing and the team is beginning to shape up! Still, lots more work has to be done! Several big meets and one dual meet are in the record books, and a lot more competition is scheduled here. GO CHEROKEE!
On April 22nd, 2023, the day after Cherokee sponsored their highly-successful Night of 3200's for Distance runners, Cherokee sponsored a meet open to all Track and Field participants, Fast Times at Cherokee High! Cherokee's distance team worked the sidelines at this event and helped to make it another highly-successful and efficient meet!
It was a nice opportunity for the Sprinters and Throwers! In the 100m, the four Chiefs who raced set new PR's: Wesley Davenport (with a 5th place overall), Murad Campfield, Brian Magee and Raymir Johnson! Similarly, all four who raced the 400m set new PR's too: Liam McCloskey, Nimai Kumar, Luke Ehly and Liam Deimler! Following that, the three in the 110H, also set new PR's: Jeremy Linden (who also set a PR in the 400IH), Dan Raider and Kyle Perkins!
In the two Sprint Relays, the 4 X 100m and the 4 X 200m, looked good but they have to improve their speed and finishes to run among the big guys! In the 4 x 100's, the JV team of Malloy, Ha, Hughes and Campfield took 5th (16 overall) in 46.63; and the Varsity team of "Shoeless Wes" Davenport, Johnson, Magee and Mitchell took 19th (23 overall) in 45.68! In the 4 X 200's, the JV team of McCloskey, Crosson, Deimler and Ha took 18th (19 overall) in 1:44.87; and the Varsity team of Malloy, Hughes, Couture and Mitchell took 12th (22 overall) in 1:34.73!
In the Throws, the four Discus men set PR's: Brody Wolfert, Alex Goode, Shane Sloan and Andrew Geisenheimer! Francisco Sandoval had a PR in the Javelin, as did Brody Ludman!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Again, our loyal photographer was at the track recording all the action but failed to get over to the Throwers and Jumpers! He plans to rectify that situation in the upcoming meets! Below are selected pictures from the meet and they and the rest of the pictures are available at the District site!
On April 19th, 2023, Cherokee hosted the first of four Dual Meets of the season, this one against sister-school, Lenape High School, and won!
The Dual Meets are much less intense than they were back-in-the-day! Large schools such as Cherokee would have as many as ten Dual Meets a season and then they were expected to develop competitve teams for the big meets each weekend and at the end of the season! To add intensity, the Dual Meets were used to determine the Conference Champions! People (mostly AD's who knew little about Track, especially the distance runners) talked about "racing into shape" but that method often led to early injuries and exhaustion by the end of the season. The modern approach of having only four Dual Meets a season and having them count for nothing except minor bragging rights, is certainly better but it weakenes the importance of the Dual Meets.
Cherokee stayed competitive throughout the meet, picking up important points in each area, and won easily. Assistant Coach Shaklee made some passing comments on the Distance squad. In the 1600m, Conor Jacobs ran a tactical race and closed in 57-58 seconds for the win! Nick Kuenkel returned to racing and both he and Enzo Corona set new PR's in the 400m Dash, with Nick taking 2nd! In the 800m, Patrick Ditmars and Matteo Evola went 1-2 with big negative splits, and Myron Paes and Sam Wright set new PR's! In a surprise showing in the 200m Dash, Patrick Ditmars took 3rd and set an impressive PR, while six other Distance team members set their own PR's in the event: Matteo Evola, Conor Jacob, Tate Midora, Enzo Corona, Andrew Free and Logan Bromley! Finally, in the 3200m, Liam Tindall and Ben Weiner took 2nd and 3rd places!
Our photographer was there and took pics of both the Boys and the Girls runners but, once again, missed the Jumpers and Throwers. He'll make up for that somewhat by covering the Throwers at Monday's Dual Meet against Cherry Hill H.S. East. Here are a few early Lenape shots and these and many others are posted on District's Google site! Again, if you want to keep copies, "copy and paste" the versions on the District site because they are of higher resolution.
On April 21st, 2023, Cherokee athletes in the Field events traveled across town to Lenape High School for the newly-founded Lenape Field Day. All in all, it was a decent outing for a number of them, as reflected in the PR's recorded!
In the Shot, Zach Ott led the team with a PR 6th place showing, with Dylan Grau and newcomer Thomas Kent following in 19th and 28th! Shane Sloan followed in 29th with his own PR! In the Discus, Brody Wolfort led the team in 9th place and Alex Goode took 11th! They were followed Shane Sloan in 13th, and Jordan Stone in 37th, both with PR's! Down the line was Austin Bird in 41st, and Freshman Ed Firstenburg in 49th and newcomer Hunter Kochie in 55th! Finally, in the Javelin, Brody Wolfort again led the squad, taking 11th, and Francisco Sandolval followed in 18th place. Behind them, Anthony Maszlanka took 22nd with a PR, Andrew Geisenheimer took 29th and Brody Ludman took 36th. The Cherokee group ended with three Freshman taking 44th, 45th and 50th: Baron Hinson, Dominic Eleftheriou and newcomer Rebel Johnson!
Our photographer was unavailable for the meet and no MileSplit photographers were there.
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On April 21st, 2023, while some of the team traveled to Lenape for a "Field Day," others went to Bishop Eustace for The Crusader Frosh-Novice Meet.
A quick review of the results shows some nice running in the distance events, the Freshman and Novice 1600m Runs! In the Freshman race, Logan Bromley took 2nd place with a time only 3 seconds over his 1600m PR, and "met" a kid from Moorestown whom he will be competing against for the next three years! Nice to take note of Logan's last quarter in 65 seconds! In the Novice race of 52 competitors, 10th grader Enzo Corona took 1st place in a barnburner of a race, setting a new PR by 15 seconds and beating his 12th grade opponent from Washington Twp by only 0.20: 4:39.73 to 4:39.93! In the same race, Sophomores Ben Weiner set a PR and took 5th; Tate Midora set a PR and took 8th; Anthony DiBatista, who was 3 seconds over his Indoor PR, took 9th; Silas Matteson finished 13th overall but was 1st in his heat and set a new PR; and Sam Wright was well back in the pack but raced a new PR!
In several Sprint Relay events, Cherokee had a Freshman 4 X 200m Relay that finished 11th/16 overall, and a Freshman 4 X 400m Relay that finished 8th/8 overall. Also, in the Novice 4 X 200m Relay Cherokee finished 18th/20 overall, and a Novice 4 X 400m Relay that finished 9th/12 overall.
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Sorry. Our photographer was unavailable for this event.
On April 22th, 2023, a significant number of team members traveled to Westfield, New Jersey for the Blue Devil Classic. Briefly, it was a long ride with not too much to brag about on the way home, and not many medals creating a racket as they hung proudly against the tin sides of the bus!
Skimming over the results, several decent performances can be identified. In the Open 400m and the 400IH, Christian Sproesser set two PR's and never went near a trash can! In the 400m, he dropped about 15 seconds from last year's performance, and in the 400IH, he dropped about 6 seconds from last year's performance. In the same events, Jeremy Linden PR'd by dropping about 6 seconds from his 400m last year; and Liam McCloskey dropped a few seconds for his PR in the 400IH.
In the Distance events, Patrick Ditmars managed a decent 1:58.21 to take 2nd in the 800m; Liam Tindall made a small all-time PR in the Mile; and Andrew Free ran an outdoor PR in the Mile but has a way to go to reach his Indoor record.
The rest of the day was devoted to relays and the results do not include individual names or splits.
In the Field, Brody Wolfort and Alex Goode threw a PR in the Discus but didn't reach the medal stand. Zach Ott threw a nice Javelin only about 6' below his best to take 3rd; and Brody Wolfort and Andrew Geisenheimer followed him with additional PR's in the Javelin!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer was unavailable for this meet but a professional friend of his, Tom Smith, covered the meet and took some pictures of our athletes on the track! Below are a few of his pictures and they and the rest are available on the District site.
Back on April 14th, our photographer took a quick shot of an individual claiming to be a Cherokee distance runner with a young lady whom he claimed was his "girlfriend from Lenape High School!" We were incredulous because we knew of no distance athlete who actually had a real girlfriend, especially one that "he shipped in from foreign shores!" (That being Lenape.) Indeed, this individual expected to escort her to his Prom and actually dance with her. Yes, a distance man!
For those a little vague on this, here is the somewhat blurred picture of the two of them.
Since then, our photographer has been inundated with so-called "real girlfriend pictures" and "Prom dates" from Distance team members and, while at least one is believable -- he took that picture himself at Cherokee -- the others seem spurious! Certainly we believe this is Tommy Bromley and his long-time girlfriend, but the others of girls alone raise many suspicions! Please check a couple of the pictures and, if you believe as he does, that the pictures are not the "girlfriends" and "Prom dates" of Distance guys, please help to put this argument to rest! Thank you!
On April 24th, 2023, the team hosted the second of four Dual Meets this season, this time against Cherry Hill H.S. East. and they tied!
Tied?! This is always a bad situation for conscientious coaches and athletes: coulda, woulda, shoulda! The coaches ask, "What could we have done to structure the team differently and pick up a few extra points?" . . . "Should we have doubled or tripled our star athlete?" . . . "Should we have held that kid out of the 1600m, where he only got us one point, and put him in 3200m where he likely would have gotten us two?" Etc.
And the athletes ask themselves, "What could I have done to beat another kid . . . to take another point or two?!" . . . "I felt OK, I should have entered the Triple Jump?" . . . "I've got the 'ups' . . . I should be in the High Jump?!" Etc.
And so it goes . . ..
There is no official record on MileSplit but Coach Shaklee sent a detailed chart on the performances of the Distance squad. In the 1600m, Patrick Ditmars took 1st. In the 800m, Conor Jacob ran well and took 1st, and Andrew Free, Tate Midora, Ben Weiner, Brett Yagiello, Silas Matteson, Ethan Weisenberg and Sam Wright all clocked new PR's! Again, to improve speed and competitive-spirit, practically the entire group raced the Open 200m but none set a new PR.
Our photographer was there and spent almost the entire day up with the Throwers! His numerous pictures reflect that. That said, he made a rookie mistake on the Discus pictures. He removed the blue recycle can from the background but left the neutral-colored trash can, thinking it wouldn't distract from the pictures. Wrong again, and he cropped the bottom of all the Disc pictures to "save" them. Anyone who says he cropped the Throwers' legs from the pictures because they are ugly needs to mention this to the Throwers!
Also included is a series of pictures of the incredibly-fought and won 1600m Relay and Cherokee's winning High Jump taken from the cheap seats! Their legs were not cropped!
Check out the full array of pictures at the District's Google site.
On April 27th, 2023, Cherokee sent two teams across the river to the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field for The 127th Annual Penn Relays!
This is an almost revered and crazy-great multi-day meet and an incredible opportunity for Track athletes to challenge the best from around the United States and the Caribbean, and even though it's mid-season (not peak-season) for New Jersey athletes, it's a great experience!
When not interrupted by lighting storms, the meet usually runs smoothly and efficiently but everything else around it is in chaos! Mobbed corridors, stretching and warming-up athletes everywhere, hucksters selling everything imaginable! Last year, we reported that with all the runners, jumpers, hurdlers, throwers, vaulters . . . there were 325 separate events and almost 500 total races and field competitions! Sounds good for this year too!
But, look, in the future, knowledgeable track friends will always ask, "You run Penns?" and it's always very cool to say, "Yeah, I did." They'll ask you what you ran but few will ask how well because most of them got their butts kicked!
This year, Cherokee entered two relay events with eight athletes, 5 of which had competed before -- Sprinters Wesley Davenport raced last year; Murad Campfield, Brian Magee and Brian Mitchell were in the 4 X 100m Relay; and all the distance runners raced the 4 X 800m last year and were racing the 4 X 400m this year: Conor Jacob, Nick Kuenkel, Bobby Poplau and Patrick Ditmars.
First up, the 4 X 100m. Quite a few of them, over 570 teams, with the gun going off about every 90 seconds. The best of them, with blistering times in the low 41's; the worst of them down in the mid-50's. A blink of an eye can separate teams by 20 or 30 places, a full second is disasterious! The team needs very fast guys but, almost as important, the team needs to pass the baton perfectly! This year, Cherokee's 4 X 100m Relay finished in 45.35. In the 3rd of 4 "Events," they finished 99th of 168 teams. If you're really compulsive, they finished 288th/571 finishers! To put this into some perspective, last year's team of Wilson Leung, Wesley Davenport, Cameron Burti and Ryan Bender clocked 45.68.
Then, there's the 4 X 400m Relay! This year, Cherokee had an excellent team of distance runners stepping up to the starting line but none was in top form. One participated in a different sport through the winter, while the other three missed huge blocks of training because of chronic sickness or injuries. They were, however, coming on: they raced an excellent 4 X 4 just the other day in a dual meet against CH East and Coach Shaklee was confident they would do well in the traditional South Jersey: Large Schools heat! Logistics were poor as they had to get there on the bus with the 4 X 100 team, scheduled to race in the morning, and their race wasn't scheduled until after 4:00 in the afternoon! A long time to hang around and stay focused on racing at "the Carnival" but, as they say, "It is what it is!"
No 4 X 400m Relay team can run at Penn without getting out fast and then, on the first exchange where as many as 16 teams are close, power into the zone and firmly exchange the baton to your next runner! Usually, by the next exchange, the group has spread out and, from then on, it's mostly quick transfers of the baton and running as fast as you can to the finish! Run fast, turn left! Easy peasy!
In this race, something went wrong from the git-go and Conor Jacobs, the lead-off runner, ended up close to the back of the pack! With all due respect, the heat has 16 teams, all taking off at the same time! Bodies banging, elbows flying, it is the toughest start of the season! Even the split between he and Nick Kuenkel was missed by the usually efficient scorers (total: 1:47.60). After that, Bobby Poplau split 52.89 (2:40.49) and Patrick Ditmars split 50.82 to finish at 3:31.31! The guys finished 5th/17 overall in the South Jersey Large Schools Heat. Only 2/17 overall in the South Jersey Small Schools heat beat their time! Combined, Cherokee took 7th/34 overall in the South Jersey field!
Look, if you're really compulsive and want to know everything, check out the Penn Relays schedule/results, probably the most detailed meet website anywhere!
Our photographer was unavailable for the meet and MileSplit posted thousands of pictures from Thursday but no one caught any of the Cherokee runners. Probably too fast. . . . Coach Shaklee "gracefully" agreed to take a few iPhone pictures of his runners warming-up and in their race but missed the Sprinters. (Sorry!) Speaking of sorry, the race pictures are sad but, photoshopped, they're even worse! A few additional pictures are available on the District's Google site.
On May 1st, 2023, the team traveled to Mt. Holly for a dual meet against Rancocas Valley Regional High School where they had a great meet but lost to RV. Sadness in Mudville!
Coach Shaklee was particularly pleased by the efforts made by his Distance Squad to win the meet! Here are his comments!
"We knew that RV would be tough to beat as they have not lost a dual meet in the past decade! We spread our guys around as best we could to score points but even that wasn't enough! Nick Kuenkel was slated in the 1600, his first since last spring, and he got the job done in a very tactical race which saw him lay down a 57 sec last 400 to pull away for the win! Enzo Corona and Logan Bromley battled it out for 3rd with Enzo taking it by a stride!
"Patrick Ditmars and Conor Jacob had the toughest jobs as they were tripling in the 400, 800 and 4 x 400! Patrick won the 400 in a fast 50.8 and, although he ran well, Conor narrowly missed picking up a 3rd! Coming back a few minutes later in the 800, where they were joined by Bobby Poplau, Conor took the win and Patrick was 3rd with Bobby, running his first 800 since last spring, picking up the 2nd place points!
"RV doubled their best distance guy back in the 3200 with a second runner who had run 10:03 indoors also in the race. Liam Tindall did a great job to get second with a new PR! Additional PR's were set by Anthony DiBatista, Brett Yagiello, Rory Carroll and Sam Wright!
"The Varsity 4 X 400 team, comprised of distance runners - Conor, Nick, Bobby and Patrick - ran well to pick up the win and make it a full 28 points scored by the distance team on the day! Unfortunately, it was not quite enough to overcome RV's depth and the team suffered its first loss, 77-64! In the JV 4 X 400's, new PR's were set by Logan Bromley, Myron Paes, Luke Reistle and Tate Midora!"
Our photographer was there and shot more than 900 pictures of the Boys and Girls teams on the track, at Long Jump and High Jump. Skimming over the pictures, he discovered he was outdone by a visiting iPhone photographer, our own Coach Shaklee! Here are three of our photographer's and then three of Shak's pictures. Whadda ya think? Should he quit the coaching and take up photography!
Our photographer edited quickly and kept a bunch of pictures from this event. Below are some, randomly selected, and they and others are available on the District's Google site! BTW, did you thank the photographer for his work!?
On May 4th, 2023, selected individuals from the team traveled Delsea Regional H.S to participate in a very unique meet: it's available only to teams from South Jersey; and it is very selective: the South Jersey Track Coaches Association's Elite Track and Field Meet!
In the past, the Association held similar meets but the entrance standards were so low that it became just like any other meet. Not this time! Indeed, only seven Cherokee athletes qualified and all did well, if not with PR's, in their events! Briefly, Senior Sprinter Wesley Davenport clocked 11.34 (PR is 11.14) in his heat in the 100m Dash. He took 5th and advanced to the Finals, where he took 7th in an fiery 8-man Final!
Among the Throwers, Junior Zack Ott threw the Javelin 152' 01" (PR is 156' 01'") and took 4th overall in the event; and Brody Wolfert threw the Discus 128' 07" (PR is 130' 00") and took 14th overall in the event!
Finally, among the Distance runners, four of Cherokee's best and most respected competed in a very challenging Open 800m and, after a series of cronic illnesses and injuries, as well as a winter on the Swim Team, stepped-up and raced very well! In the seeded, Heat 2, Seniors Patrick Ditmars (1:55.80) and Conor Jacob 1:56.99) took 1st and 2nd, and Junior Nick Kuenkel (PR 1:58.38) took 5th! In the unseeed, Heat 1, Junior Bobby Poplau (2:00.37) took 2nd (10th overall). All are healthy and focused on the State Meet of Champions!
Coach Shaklee said much the same thing in his quick comments:
"It was good to have all four legs from last year's MOC Championship 4 X 8 finally back on the track!
"Bobby Poplau was up first in Heat 1 and continued his comeback from injury with a 3rd place finish that got him 10th overall!
"Patrick Ditmars, Conor Jacob and Nick Kuenkel were all in the seeded Heat 2 and dominated the race with a 1st, 2nd and 5th place showing!
"While there is still more work to be done, the potential to repeat last year's MOC victory is looking more and more likely as the season progresses!"
GO CHEROKEE!
Complete details, videos, etc at: NJ. MileSplit.
Our photographer was there and took pictures of Cherokee's elite in action! These and others are available on the District's Google site!
